Science Curriculum for High Schoolers

I've already decided on an introductory biology course for dd's next school year, 9th grade. But because I am all about free- but good!- curriculum, I went searching for 'free biology courses' online.

There were quite a few results for my search. Unfortunately so many were sponsored ads that really had no business being in my search results! But anyway, despite that, there were quite a few that look like they have potentia.

Here is a list of 4 results that may have potential for high school biology courses in the coming years:

1. General Ecology from Utah State University- audio files (unfortunately, this one does not have working links to the lecture notes, and the text is $65+)
2. Introduction to Biology from MIT Open Course Ware (this has extensive course resources: audio, video files, study guides, exams [but no solutions] and the book that is used for the course is $1.20-$28.99) (see other listings from MIT Open Course Ware)
3. Learners TV has Biology Video Lecture courses (Introductory Biology courses as well as many others that most likely wouldn't be used in our school...)
4. Free-Ed.net also has Science courses (General Biology here) I like the disclaimer on this site: some users may not be satisfied "partly because the process requires you to dig out and refine much of the subject matter on your own." That is exactly what we need to do a lot of the time in life; no spoon feeding!

Open Culture has a long list of 'science' free courses but some that I was more interested in were unintelligible (couldn't hear them) or the links resulted in error. Also there is the website called Hoagies that is chock full of resources for science (and any other subject really) if you are in need of something. If you need ideas for lower grades for science in general, you can check out my Links by Subject for Schooling page, scroll down to Science. 

The path I have chosen for dd is based on the fact that I have textbook from my own Biology class in college, Biology by Sylvia S. Mader, 9th edition. There is a more current edition of this book but I am okay with using the 9th edition. This book has an online component that includes labs. I recall doing a lab about crickets and the effect of temperature on the number of chirps. 

I am actually quite relieved that I recalled I had this book. It's amusing to me (I'm the disorganized type I suppose) that I saved this book for just this purpose. Now I'm glad that science for 9th grade (and possibly 10th) is taken care of :)